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The search for a new pope has gone south, but not in the figurative sense because a cardinal from Argentina was elected pope this week. That's right, Jorge Mario Bergoglio now has a new name: he is now known as Francis in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. He is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere. Francis is the first pope of Italian descent since John Paul I, who was pope for a brief period in 1978, but he is also the first pope born outside Europe in 1,272 years, since Syrian-born St. Gregory III. Speaking of Syria, it has now been two years since their civil war began, and still no sign of Bashar al-Assad's ouster. But the rebels have captured the city of ar-Raqqah.